Tales from the Call Center
I used to work for a major bank in their credit card customer service department. When you work in a call centre you really come across some interesting folks. I mean, I took over 100 calls per day, I was bound to run into some characters. Plus I worked nights, which I think only increased the number of weridos I got to talk to.
One time I took a call from a guy who calling to let us know that he couldn’t make his payment this month because his backpack was stolen. I sympathized thinking his wallet must have been in his backpack. Nope! In his backpack were the drugs he was going to sell to get the money for his credit card payment. I felt less bad after he told me that.
Or the time I took a call from a guy who wanted to know when his payment was going to post to his account. I could see the payment was in processing but I couldn’t guarantee when it would be applied to his account. So the guy puts a pimp on the phone and has me explain the situation to him. Turns out my customer was having trouble paying for um… some services he had received. The pimp informed me that he would be staying with my customer until his payment processed.
The bank wouldn’t allow online gambling with their credit cards. This would irritate people to no end. The customer’s argument was always that we can’t tell them what they can do with their money. I would have to explain that in fact it was not their money. It was the bank’s money. And the bank didn’t want to loan them money so they could gamble. If they wanted to use their money then they would have to use their debit card. Weird that no one ever took me up on that offer.
There was another call I got once from a woman who wanted to know why her credit card was declined. She had a $500 credit limit and a balance of $490. I explained that she didn’t have enough available credit to make her purchase. She didn’t understand that because she had just made a $10 payment. We went back and forth a few times. Turns out that she thought she got a brand new $500 limit every month as long as she made her minimum payment. I explained this was not the case, that a $500 limit means she can borrow up to $500 at a time. Forever. Not every month. She said “Well, this isn’t a credit card… it’s a debit card.” and hung up.
Can you imagine if you got a fresh credit limit every month? Wow. We think we are in a mess now!
Ashley
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The most amusing part of the whole thing was thinking of a pimp taking a credit card. What do they stand there with their own credit card machine. Good laugh! My first job out of college was working at a call center supporting computers. Different stories, but definitely some funny ones. I think anytime you answer the phone you’re bound to be amused.